Life is Strange Episode 5 Review

Well, it’s over. After four harrowing, emotional episodes, Life is Strange finally concluded in an action-packed and eye-opening fifth episode. It would be an understatement to say that Life is Strange ends with a bang in this final episode; the finale is emotional, powerful, and altogether amazing.

Over the Top

The end of Episode 4 was both shocking and horrifying, and the entire fifth episode continues with those themes. It’s hard to say much without ruining any of the story, but I ran into a lot of events in this last episode that made me feel, well, a little sick. Not because they were gross or terrifying, but because they were so disturbing, so well-acted, and so realistic to what we sometimes hear about on the news that they were deeply impactful.

Unfortunately, some of these events were broken apart with seemingly random bits of background that Max and others would bring up. In the midst of the messed up things going on around them, it seemed strange and almost comical that the characters would bring up various events in the past. As Episode 5 is the concluding episode of Life is Strange, I understood why some of these past things were mentioned, but I felt like they could have been done in a different way, or at least solely in the way that presents itself near the end of the episode, on which I won’t go into detail, so as not to spoil the plot.

Finished

There’s a very limited amount of things that I can talk about in this review that won’t ultimately serve as spoilers, but I will say that in the end, everything does get explained. Despite the numerous confusing and crazy events that happened over the course of the game, I didn’t see any loose ends left when I finally reached the credits. Life is Strange sees to that by offering players a truly difficult choice at the end, which, keeping with the general theme of the game, allows players to essentially choose how the story ends. It’s easily the toughest choice I’ve ever had to make in a game, and I will be playing through all five episodes again to see other outcomes.

And that’s about all I can say about Episode 5 without giving anything away. It’s a great ending to a great game, and might possibly be called the best episode of the bunch. Episode 5 is the reason why you should buy Life is Strange if you haven’t already, and it’s the reason why you should hurry up and finish it if you already own it.

Review copy for Life is Strange: Episode 5 was purchased by the reviewer. Reviewed on PlayStation 4. For more information on scoring, please read our Review Policy here.